A FEMALE ASTRONAUT RETUNS TO THE WORLD AFTER 665 DAYS

Astronaut Peggy Whitson returned to Earth late Saturday, wrapping up a record-breaking flight that catapulted her to first place for U.S. space endurance.

Whitson’s 665 days off the planet — 288 days on this mission alone — exceeds that of any other American and any other woman worldwide.

She checked out of the International Space Station just hours earlier, along with another American and a Russian. Their Soyuz capsule landed in Kazakhstan shortly after sunrise Sunday — Saturday night back in the U.S.

Whitson was the last one carried from the Soyuz. She immediately received a pair of sunglasses to put on, as she rested in a chair on the barren, wind-swept Kazak steppes. Medical personnel took her pulse, standard practice. She then received a bouquet of flowers with the greeting, “Welcome back, Peggy.”

Besides duration, Whitson set multiple other records while in orbit: world’s oldest spacewoman, at age 57, and most experienced female spacewalker, with 10. She also became the first woman to command the space station twice following her launch last November.

Returning cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin logged even more time in space: 673 days over five missions. NASA astronaut Jack Fischer returned after 136 days aloft. The men flew up in April.

All three briefly held hands for a photo op, before being carried one by one in their chairs to the medical tent.

It was an emotional farewell to the space station for Whitson, Yurchikhin and Fischer. Before retreating into their Soyuz, they embraced the three colleagues they were leaving behind at the 250-mile-high complex. Yurchikhin patted the inside of the station before floating into his Soyuz for the final time.

The station’s newest commander, Randy Bresnik, noted the outpost was losing 1,474 days of spaceflight experience with the departure of Whitson, Yurchikhin and Fischer. Four years and two weeks, he pointed out.

“We are in your debt for the supreme dedication that you guys have to the human mission of exploration,” Bresnik told them on the eve of their departure. He offered up special praise for Whitson — “American space ninja” — and wished them all Godspeed.

Yurchikhin is now No. 7 on the world’s all-time endurance list, followed by Whitson at No. 8. The top spot belongs to Russian Gennady Padalka, with 879 days in space over five flights.

Whitson, a biochemist, set a breakneck pace on all three of her space station expeditions, continually asking for more — and still more — scientific research to do. Scientists on the ground said it often was hard to keep up with her. She even experimented on food up there, trying to add some pizazz to the standard freeze-dried meals. Tortillas transformed into apple pies on her watch.

Whitson was supposed to fly back in June after a half-year in space. But when an extra seat opened up on this Soyuz, she jumped at the chance to stay in orbit an extra three months. Only one other American — yearlong spaceman Scott Kelly — has spent longer in space on a single mission.

Except for the past week, Whitson said her mission hurried by. She’s hungry for pizza and can’t wait to use a regular flush toilet again. She’s also eager to reunite with her husband, Clarence Sams, a biochemist who also works at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Because of the effects of Hurricane Harvey, NASA could not get its plane from Houston to Kazakhstan in time for the crew’s landing. Instead, the European Space Agency offered to transport Whitson and Fischer to Cologne, Germany, where they will meet up with the NASA plane for the final leg of their journey. They should be back in Houston on Sunday night.

Three men remain at the space station: Bresnik, a Russian and an Italian. They will be joined by two Americans and a Russian following liftoff from Kazakhstan on Sept. 12.

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TURKEY FREES 750+ SOLDIERS AFTER FAILED COUP

Turkey has released more than 750 soldiers detained after an abortive coup, state media reported on Saturday, while President Tayyip Erdogan said he would drop lawsuits against people who had insulted him, in a one-time gesture of "unity".

More than 60,000 people have been detained, removed or suspended over suspected links with the failed putsch, when a faction of the military commandeered tanks, helicopters and fighter jets and attempted to topple the government.

Turkey's Western allies have condemned the coup, in which Erdogan has said 237 people were killed and more than 2,100 were wounded, but have been rattled by the scale of the resulting crackdown which has targeted supporters of Fethullah Gulen.

The U.S.-based Muslim cleric, accused by Ankara of masterminding the July 15-16 putsch, denies the charges and Erdogan's critics say the president is using the purges to clamp down on dissent.

Erdogan, meanwhile, has said it was "shameful" that Western countries showed more interest in the fate of the plotters than in standing with a fellow NATO member and has upbraided Western leaders for not visiting after the putsch. U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, a top military official, is due to visit Turkey on Sunday.

State-run Anadolu Agency reported that 758 soldiers were released on the recommendation of prosecutors after giving testimony, and the move was agreed by a judge.

Another 231 soldiers remain in custody, it said.

Turkey's military, the second-largest in NATO, has been hard hit in the wake of the coup, with about 40 percent of all generals and admirals dismissed. On Thursday, 99 colonels were promoted to the rank of general or admiral, following the dishonourable discharge of nearly 1,700 military personnel.

Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isik told broadcaster NTV on Friday that the shake-up was not yet over, adding that military academies would now be a target of "cleansing".

Turkey's military is already stretched, facing violence in the mainly Kurdish southeast, and Islamic State attacks on its border with Syria.

The army killed 35 Kurdish militants after they attempted to storm a base in the southeastern Hakkari province early on Saturday, military officials said.

The head of the pro-Kurdish opposition told Reuters that the government's chance to revive a wrecked peace process with Kurdish rebels has been missed as Erdogan taps nationalist sentiment to consolidate support.

ERDOGAN'S LAWSUITS

In an unexpected move, Erdogan said late on Friday he would drop, as a one-off gesture, all lawsuits filed against people for insulting him. He said the decision was triggered by feelings of "unity" against the coup attempt.

It could also be aimed at silencing his Western critics. Prosecutors have opened more than 1,800 cases against people for insulting Erdogan since he became president in 2014, the justice minister said earlier this year. Those targeted include journalists, cartoonists and even children.

It was not immediately clear whether Erdogan would also drop his legal action against German comedian Jan Boehmermann, who earlier this year recited a poem on television suggesting Erdogan engaged in bestiality and watched child pornography, prompting the president to file a complaint with German prosecutors that he had been insulted.

European leaders worry that their differences with Erdogan could prompt him to retaliate and put an end to a historic deal, agreed in March, to stem the wave of migrants to Europe.

"The success of the pact so far is fragile. President Erdogan has several times hinted he wants to terminate the agreement," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told Austria's Kurier newspaper in an interview, when asked if the pact could fall apart. [L8N1AG09T]

Erdogan criticised the European Council and the European Union, which Turkey aspires to be a part of, for failing to visit to offer condolences, saying their criticism was "shameful".

Erdogan has blamed Gulen for masterminding the attempted coup and has called on Washington to extradite him. Turkish officials have suggested the United States could extradite him based on strong suspicion, while President Obama last week insisted Turkey must first present evidence of Gulen's alleged complicity.

COURT REPORTERS

On Saturday, 56 employees of Turkey's constitutional court were suspended from their jobs as part of the investigation into the alleged coup, private broadcaster Haberturk TV reported.

Among those, more than 20 court reporters were detained, it reported.

The number of public sector workers removed from their posts since the coup attempt is now more than 66,000, including some 43,000 people in education, Anadolu reported on Friday.

Interior Minister Efkan Ala said more than 18,000 people had been detained over the failed coup, and that 50,000 passports had been cancelled. The labour ministry said it was investigating 1,300 staff over their possible involvement.

Erdogan has said that Gulen harnessed his extensive network of schools, charities and businesses, built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, to create a "parallel state" that aimed to take over the country.

The government is now going after Gulen's network of schools and other institutions abroad. Since the coup, Somalia has shut two schools and a hospital believed to have links to Gulen, and other governments have received similar requests from Ankara, although not all have been willing to comply.

(Additional reporting by Seyhmus Cakan in Diyarbakir and Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul; Mike Shields in Zurich; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Alexander Smith)

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BEIJING LAUNCHES NAVAL DRILL IN SOUTH CHINA SEA

In the final days before a landmark court decision over disputed territory in the South China Sea, Beijing hasannounced it will conduct military drills in the busy trade corridor, raising tensions ahead of a ruling that Chinese officials have already vowed to ignore.

On Sunday, China’s Maritime Safety Administration published plans for naval exercises, to be held from July 5 to July 11 in an area reaching from China’s Hainan Island down to the nearby Paracel Islands, which are claimed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan. A ruling on a complaint issued in 2013 by the Philippines, which, along with China, claims both the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, is expected July 12 at the International Court of Arbitration at The Hague.

“The drills are a very symbolic expression of China’s resolve,” Zhu Feng, dean of the Institute of International Affairs at Nanjing University, tells TIME. “It is definitely also responding to the recent American warships patrolling in the South China Sea.”

Washington is a defense treaty ally of Manila and has recently accelerated troop rotations on Philippine military bases. The U.S. Navy has also ramped up “freedom of navigation” exercises in the South China Sea, of which almost 90% is claimed by Beijing in an area demarcated by the so-called “Nine-Dash Line.” Protracted disputes with various Southeast Asian nations have escalated since China’s construction of military bases and landing strips on reclaimed islands in the waterway, through which $5 trillion in trade passes annually.

The drills are also likely intended to assuage domestic chauvinism. “It is very important for the Xi Jinping leadership to keep an eye on nationalist emotions in the lead to the court’s decision,” says Linda Jakobson, director of Australia’s China Matters think tank and visiting professor at the University of Sydney.

The Hague is expected to rule in Manila’s favor, yet China has repeatedly said any decision would be illegitimate and has refused to participate in proceedings. Chinese officials instead advocatebilateral talks. “China will not accept an invalid arbitral award,” China’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Wu Ken, told China’s state Xinhua news agency in May. “Such an arbitration should not be recognized or supported in any manner.”

Sunday’s announcement of drills effectively underscores that existing stance. However, according to Zhu, it is significant that the military exercises are to take place at the Parcel Islands, which though disputed are entirely under Chinese control, rather than the Spratlys, where the Philippine military retains a presence. “It shows [China] doesn’t want to cause a lot of concern or make a bigger bang,” he says.

China doesn’t really need to. Even though the court at the Hague is expected to rule against Beijing, its scope is limited. The court is not allowed to arbitrate in a specific territorial dispute — such as who legitimately controls the Spratly Islands — but is instead to rule on the legality of China’s Nine-Dash Line.

The Philippine position is that even if the Spratlys were China’s rightful dominion, Beijing should only be allowed control of waters in a 12-mile radius. China, in turn, argues that it should get a 200 sq mile exclusive economic zone. However, Manila says that in either case the total territory would be far less than what Beijing currently claims under the scope of the Nine-Dash Line.

Crucially, the court has zero powers to enforce what is probably the highest-profile decision in its 117-year history. Beijing is also busy working to secure the support of other — generally developing — nations to support its position.

“The court does not have a military at its disposal so this would be a moral and political victory if the ruling is favorable to the Philippines,” says Jakobson. “There is a lot of room for China to maneuver politically.”

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AT LEAST 120 KILLED IN TWO SUICIDE BOMBING IN BAGHDAD

(BAGHDAD) — A suicide truck bomb in downtown Baghdad killed 115 people and wounded nearly 200 others who were out shopping and celebrating early Sunday ahead of the holiday marking the end of Ramadan, security and medical officials said.

The attack, claimed by the Islamic State group, was the deadliest in months in the Iraqi capital, and came despite a series of recent gains against the extremists, including the capture of Fallujah, which was believed to have been a source of such attacks.

The bomb went off shortly after midnight in a crowded shopping area in the central Karada district, killing at least 115 people and wounding 187, according to a police official. The dead included at least 15 children, 10 women and six policemen. At least twelve other people were still missing and feared dead.

Karada is a major commercial area lined with clothing and jewelry stores, restaurants and cafes, and was packed with shoppers ahead of Wednesday’s Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan. Most of the victims were inside a multi-story shopping and amusement mall, where dozens burned to death or suffocated, police said.

It was the deadliest attack in Iraq since July 2015 and among the worst single bombings in more than a decade of war and insurgency.

“It was like an earthquake,” said Karim Sami, a 35-year-old street vendor. “I wrapped up my goods and was heading home when I saw a fireball with a thunderous bombing,” the father of three said.

“I was so scared to go back and started to make phone calls to my friends, but none answered.” He said that one of his friends was killed, another was wounded and one was still missing.

As with many previous attacks, IS swiftly claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement posted online, saying it had targeted Shiite Muslims. The Associated Press could not verify the authenticity of the statement, but it was posted on a militant website commonly used by the extremists.

Firefighters and civilians could be seen carrying the dead away, their bodies wrapped in blankets and sheets. Smoke billowed from the shopping center, which was surrounded by the twisted and burned wreckage of cars and market stalls. A group of women were sitting on the pavement, crying for their loved ones.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off in the mostly Shiite Shaab neighborhood, killing five people and wounding 16, another police officer said. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of IS militants.

The Sunni extremists frequently target the country’s Shiite majority and Shiite-led security forces, viewing them as apostates deserving of death.

Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures from both attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

The attacks came just a little over a week after Iraqi forces declared Fallujah “fully liberated,” marking a major victory against IS. The city, less than an hour’s drive from Baghdad, had been the first Iraqi urban center to fall to IS, in January 2014, and was its last major stronghold in the vast, Sunni Anbar province.

On Sunday, the Joint Military Operation Command announced that government forces retook seven villages south of the IS-held city of Mosul as part of a small-scale operation started in March aimed at clearing areas outside the city to cut the supply lines and enable more troops to be deployed ahead of a major operation.

Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, fell to IS when the militants swept across northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014. It is the largest city in the group’s self-styled caliphate.

Hours after the Baghdad bombing, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and lawmakers visited the blast site. Video footage uploaded to social media showed an angry crowd, with people calling al-Abadi a “thief” and shouting at his convoy. Eyewitnesses said the crowd pelted al-Abadi’s car with rocks, shoes and jerry cans.

The prime minister had received a rare boost after the Fallujah campaign following months of anti-government protests over political gridlock, official corruption and poor public services.

He faced renewed criticism in Karada on Sunday over lax security in the capital, where security forces at checkpoints still use bomb-detecting wands that were shown to be useless years ago.

“We are in a state of war, and these places are targeted. The security can’t focus on the war (against IS) and forget Baghdad,” Sami, the street vendor, said.

The U.N. envoy for Iraq, Jan Kubis, described the Karada attack as “a cowardly and heinous act of unparalleled proportions” and urged the Iraqi government to redouble its security efforts to protect Iraqis during the Eid al-Fitr celebrations.

IS militants who “have suffered defeats at the battlefront are seeking to avenge their losses by targeting vulnerable civilians,” Kubis added.

The White House also condemned the bombings.

“These attacks only strengthen our resolve to support Iraqi security forces as they continue to take back territory from ISIL, just as we continue to intensify our efforts to root out ISIL’s terrorist network and leaders,” National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement, referring to IS by an alternative acronym.

At the height of the extremist group’s power in 2014, IS rendered nearly a third of Iraq out of government control. Now, the militants are estimated to control only 14 percent of Iraqi territory, according to the prime minister’s office.

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SUICUDE BOMBER ATTACKS NEAR U.S CONSULATE IN SAUDI ARABIA

A suicide bomber blew himself up near the American consulate in Jidda,Saudi Arabia, early Monday morning, injuring two people, the Saudi governmentsaid in a statementto its official news agency.The blast happened shortly before 3 a.m. local time near the parking lot of a hospital across the street from the consulate, according to an unnamed Interior Ministry spokesman who spoke to the Saudi Press Agency. He said two police officers had been treated at the hospital for minor injuries.Agrisly streak of large-scale attacksby jihadists linked to the Islamic State has killed more than 200 people in three countries in the past week. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing in Jidda, a port city on the Red Sea.Video posted to Twitterfrom Jidda showed no visible damage tonearby buildings. Emergency vehicles sat in the street, their flashing lights bouncing off cars that drove slowly past.
Another photo shared widely on social media showed a white carsaid to belong to the attacker. Its driver’s-side door was flung open, and what appeared to be human remains lay on the pavement nearby.In 2004, militants from a group calling itself Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabiastormed the heavily fortified consulate, using explosives to breach its walls. They took employees hostage and engaged in a fierce firefight with Saudi security forces and United States Marines. Five non-American employees of the consulate were killed.

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NIGERIA'S LAGOS SHUTS 70 CHURCHES AND 20 MOSQUES OVER NOISE

A buzzing, hustling metropolis, the city of Lagos in southwest Nigeria proudly holds the moniker of Africa’s biggest city by population.

But the city’s estimated 21 million inhabitants also have the effect of making Lagos one of Africa’s noisiest places.

To that end, the state government has vowed to make Lagos noise-free by 2020. And to achieve that aim, they have started targeting churches and mosques, which contribute to the din in the uber-religious West African country.

The Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) has closed down 70 churches and 20 mosques, in addition to more than ten hotels, pubs and clubs, Vanguard reported. The head of LASEPA, Bola Shabi, said that makeshift buildings and tents could no longer be used as places of worship. “What I mean by makeshift, using tents and uncompleted building[s], we are not going to allow that any further in the state,” said Shabi, who added that the level of compliance with the noise reduction measures was better among mosques than churches.

Shabi added that noise levels had been reduced by about 35 percent so far, and that the authorities were aiming for a target of 70-80 percent. “Enforcement is a continuous exercise and we have set a target for ourselves,” said Shabi. “With our status as a mega city, by year 2020 we will be free of noise.”

Nigeria is one of the world’s most religious countries, with 88 percent of the country’s estimated 180 million population saying that religion is “very important” to them, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center study. The country is roughly equally split between Muslims and Christians, with Muslims tending to coalesce in the north while Christians are more populous in the south.

The closure of makeshift churches is likely to be welcomed following a 2014 tragedy in which a church guesthouse belonging to the Synagogue Church of All Nations—a megachurch run by wealthy Nigerian pastor TB Joshua—collapsed, killing at least 115 people.

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20 HOSTAGES AND 6 GUNMEN KILLED IN BANGLADESH ATTACK

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladeshi troops stormed an upscale restaurant in Dhaka’s diplomatic quarter on Saturday, ending an 11-hour standoff with gunmen who had detonated explosives and taken hostages.
The authorities said 20 hostages, including many foreigners, had been killed on Friday night. Most were “brutally killed” with sharp weapons, the military said.
A kitchen worker who had escaped said the attackers were armed with pistols, swords and bombs.
Thirteen hostages were rescued in the raid on Saturday morning, and six attackers were killed, the Bangladeshi military said. A seventh attacker was arrested.
The identities and nationalities of the attackers were not released.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, in which at least 30 people were wounded, mostly from shrapnel. Two police officers were killed in the initial standoff.
“Islamic State commandos attack a restaurant frequented by foreigners in the city of Dhaka in Bangladesh,” reported Amaq, an information outlet linked to the Islamic State.

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GERMAN TOURIST DIES WHILE POSING FOR A PHOTO

A German tourist died Wednesday trying to pose for a photo in a restricted area of Machu Picchu, according to reports.

Oliver Park, 51, slipped from a ledge and fell around 130 ft. as he tried to jump to pose for a photo, according to a Washington Post report. Peruvian officials said the area had been restricted. Park was found dead when rescuers reached him 90 minutes after his fall.

Park is far from the first to die on Machu Picchu. Many others have fallen—or had rocks fall on them—at the UNESCO Heritage Site, according to the report.

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FACEBOOK USERS NOW CAN POST STATUS IN MULTIPLE LANGUAGES

Multilingual Facebook users are about to see posts in more languages than just English.

The company announced on Friday the launch of a new feature that serves as a translation tool that allows users to compose statuses in a total of 45 different languages.

Called the "multilingual composer," the new tool automatically translates text into the desired language of the user's choice.

The author of a post can write it in multiple languages, such as first writing something in English and then having the same post appear in Spanish for family or friends who only understand their native language. The writer can also edit the text that is translated with the ability to include colloquial words to make it sound more like the user and not some robot.
The feature uses machine learning to display a user's preferred language. This will come in handy for Pages that include multiple languages in a single post to avoid missing an audience. Instead of all the languages included appearing for those reading it, a French-speaking user, for example, will see the post only in French instead of having to scroll through long text that says the same thing in different languages.

This allows more people to communicate, learn information on the platform and share their opinions without language being a barrier. It only makes sense that Facebook would introduce a feature like this. There are more than 1.5 billion people on the social network, and only 50 percent of users speak English.

Previously, Facebook users could click on a "translate" button on statuses that appeared in different languages. However, these posts had to be written by switching the language on the user's smartphone or computer keyboard. The multilingual composer makes it easy for any user to start writing in English and then instantly translate it to the language they prefer to post it in.

Here's how it works:

When a user is composing a new post, they have the option to have the text appear in additional languages. To select a language, the author simply clicks on a drop-down menu associated with "Language: Select" to choose the language they want. The text will automatically be translated.  

Once they select the language, the user then has the option of also sharing this status in yet another language. To do so, they click on "Write post in another language" in gray text located underneath the blue text for the language they selected. They would then select another language and have the option of keeping the translation or editing it.

This allows the same post to be written in, say, English, Spanish and Arabic, all in a few easy steps. Remember, other users will not see this post three times; they will only see it in their language.

Facebook begun testing out the multilingual composer for Pages earlier this year, and it has begun testing the feature for everyday Facebook users starting on Friday.

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PENTAGON PROPOSES COOPERATION WITH RUSSIA AGAINST JIHADIS IF ASSAD HALTS STRIKES

Washington has issued a proposal to Russia that would see greater cooperation against radical groups in northern Syria if Moscow uses its influence to halt the Assad regime’s strikes against U.S.-backed rebels.

Both the U.S.-led coalition and the Obama administration have been critical of Russian action in Syria since it began an airstrike campaign against rebel groups and the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in September 2015.

But the U.S. government knows that closer coordination with Russia, rather than crossing wires, will bring more success against extremist groups plotting attacks against the West. Both parties have been at pains to avoid an escalation as both operate side-by-side in Syrian air space.

Such an agreement would also potentially end the Syrian military’s devastating barrel bombings of opposition areas, causing severe civilian casualties. In the five-year Syrian civil war, more than a quarter of a million people have lost their lives.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby refused to deny that the offer had been made, saying on Thursday: “We have been clear about Russia's obligations to ensure regime compliance with the cessation of hostilities. We have also been clear about the danger posed by Al-Qaeda in Syria to our own national security.”

Washington’s offer involves Russia persuading Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to ground his air force, before the U.S. would then help Russia with its strikes against the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front and ISIS, as opposed to U.S.-backed Syrian rebels, officials told the Wall Street Journal.

“I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion that the Russians want it,” one U.S. official said, estimating that an answer from Moscow could take weeks to materialize.

Still, this move, one that would see the Syrian air force stop attacking rebels, already looks increasingly unlikely as the conflict between both sides continues to rage. On Friday, the U.K.-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that Islamist rebels captured a Syrian air force pilot after his plane crashed in the western Qalamun region near the capital, Damascus.

"It is not known whether it crashed due to a technical fault or it was hit by rebels," SOHR chief Rami Abdelrahman told AFP news agency.

The Syrian military is conducting a search for the pilot but the Islamist group that captured him, the Nusrat Al-Mazlum, have passed him to another rebel group. While that group has not been identified, the Saudi-funded Army of Islam coalition claimed to have possession of the pilot.

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